It was 1 am on a Monday night, or Tuesday morning if we want to be petty, and I had worked earlier in the day, but yet I still found myself tuned in as I sat to the left side of Revival Bar’s illustrious stage and took in the gospel of Scotty IV.

“Four years…,” he declared. “Four years we’ve been at this putting in work. I’ve got new music that I want to test out for you guys.”

That set off a chain of four multifaceted records, each with their own unique songwriting concepts and captivating sounds and his dedication to his music was on full display. One particularly engrossing song was about heart break and was sang to the tune of a punk-like melody

A post shared by Stay Out Late (@stayoutlate) on Aug 23, 2018 at 2:25pm PDT

As Stay Out Late’s flagship artist, Scotty hasn’t shied away from the spotlight. He embraces it wholeheartedly and it’s something he’s continuously worked towards.

“I used to be out there (in the crowd) saying I was going to be on stage, and now I’m out here headlining a show for Manifesto.” He tells the crowd with fire in his eyes.

Scotty’s level of command on stage that night was otherworldy. It reminded me of how Drake performed at the last OVO Fest, because after Scotty debuted his new songs he put on for his hometown Brampton.

Upon revealing that the next portion of the show would display talent from Brampton, he was met with a mix of cheers and boos.

“Don’t let 6ixbuzz fool you…” He responded.

And he’s right, we’ve been somewhat duped.

As fun as it is to clown on Brampton for being Brampton, they have produced a ton of talent for Canada on the world stage, from sports, to entertainment, to tech. Brampton should not be slept on.

However, the events that took place before the Brampton portion of the show should not be ignored either. Tremayne, host of the show, took the stage and got the crowd eager and ready for the first act of Midnight Club III:

Probably Raymond

A multi talented individual with a care free spirit to match. Probably Raymond took to the stage and brought the masses closer. His first song We Could was an upbeat bop that had him swaying on stage.

To start he seemed a little nervous, but that quickly dissipated once he got into the groove of the song. Throughout his set he sang the lyrics to his songs without missing a beat.

He also divulged some of the success he’s had with songs like Sideways and I’m Sorry, which was the first song he’d made on a streaming platform. One of the most surprising aspects to his set was his humour that he’d sprinkle in to transition from song to song. It just added a unique level of showmanship that I haven’t seen from an artist before.

That talent also explains how he slipped in comedian Lil Duval’s Smile lyrics into the end of his song before signing off from the stage.

TAHIR

A walking enigma. Upon first glance TAHIR looks like a real chill and down to earth dude (and I’m sure he embodies those qualities), but from a musical standpoint it appears as if an alter ego emerges when he grips the mic. Darkness is sonically emanated with each tune and note that he performs.

His set was packed with energy from the jump as he hopped around, got active, and garnered participation from the crowd to rap his ad-lib “ya-ya-ya-ya,” for his track Yasuke (the first black Samurai).

He doubled his output with appearances from his boy Brandon who came up to perform their collaboration. As well as a guest appearance from Justin Trash who performed the anti K-Pop track, NORAEBANG, a song that features TAHIR.

Those collabs sent the crowd into a frenzy as the artists themselves hopped off the stage and turned up on the dance floor for a memorable set.

For those that don’t know, Cola H. is the manager for a fairly established Toronto rapper by the name of Clairmont “The” Second. But that’s just a slice of what Cola H. does. He’s a drummer that tours, a business man, and a rapper himself.

He comes from that old school ilk, but that isn’t to say his music isn’t contemporary. Even with an emphasis on his lyrical ability his tracks were still crowd movers.

His set comprised of Ain’t No Thang which was the first song he performed with a bunch of dope bars for our minds, and a couple untitled tracks that will debut on his next EP in the fall and another upcoming project in September to hold people off until the EP.

One of those being White Kicks which had a nice melodic hook to it, to go along with the white kicks Cola was wearing that night: strategic marketing. I look forward to checking out his upcoming music in hoodie season.

*One of the joints from his catalogue I enjoy*

OSIYM

#CUPINHANDGANG IS THE MOTTO MY LIFE HAS BEEN MISSING FOR THE PAST 26 YEARS!

OSIYM, (pronounced “oh-saim”) stands for Out of Sight, In Your Mind. They’re a west Toronto duo comprised of Charlie Noir and Nova D’Or, that loves a good party and know how to bring one.

These two are some of the most charismatic artists, let alone people, I’ve ever met. My first interaction with them was actually on the main floor where I think I was blocking Charlie’s view of the previous acts without knowing. All I remember is hearing him yell out “Ayo tall man!” which to my knowledge could have been any one of three other people in my vicinity.

It wasn’t until they hit the stage that I realized these guys were performers and they were about to put on an incredible show. Once they hit the stage they immediately began raising the energy of the crowd to their level before going into their first song One More Night, a fitting intro as the song talks about having a good time.

Remember that charisma I said these guys had? Well what’s more charismatic than promoting safe sex in your set as a hundred people chant “Wear condoms!”

After that rowdy affair, they got back to business with another banger titled Lookin’ Like (Feat. Filli Babii). At this point my ass was sitting off to the side because of fatigue, but I had to hop back up when I heard this bop pop off.

Filli Babii was on stage rocking a velour tracksuit for her verse. A verse that she bodied as she had some choice lyrics for any one of her “opps”. Her live vocals and breath control were on point for her performance. How she managed to not break a sweat in that suit is beyond me though.

Their set came to a close with a unreleased song called Dead Roses and a hit called Flex before they made their passioned exit in which they got a lot of love from the crowd.

Brampton

That brings us full circle to the Brampton portion of the show. Scotty’s first hometown act goes by the name of NOYZ (pronounced noise), an emcee and producer who spits his soul into the mic. Not only is lyrically gifted, but he’s doing major work in the city of Brampton and is featured in a piece on MLS and hip hop in Brampton.

His performance was accompanied by Scotty in which the two performed their verses in a song they worked on together, with the lyrics “worlds collide and gods build.” It rang true for their performance as the two artists brought their different styles together in one cohesive track.

Up next was Phab who had a stark message for the crowd before performing. “I’ve been doing music for two to three years now and one thing I’ve noticed is that when you first walk in to a building a lot of people are already ready to not like you. So if you like this joint at all what I want you to do is open up Instagram and hit that follow button.”

Seeing as the showcase was winding down we didn’t get to hear much from him, but I definitely rocked with what I heard and I know why he makes that bold statement before putting on a performance. I believe the couple tracks he played were unreleased, but here’s one of tracks I enjoy the most from his catalogue.

Staasia Daniels was the next Brampton act to come up and it was funny because there was a slight mishap in terms of the timing of the beat of her song and when she had to start so she told the DJ to restart so she could hear when the beat is supposed to drop but while she was waiting she started clowning, in a playful yet very Toronto-esque way, some of the male artists in the front while telling them to calm down as she prepared.

As the sole R&B act of the night it was a nice change of pace to hear her voice. As a live performer I can say she’s very comfortable in her own skin, and vocally she’s up to par with her recordings. Of which, she performed her hit song Voicemail which touches on moving on from a relationship. And her only message was to support local female artists. Salute.

Last but not least was Waycool who came on to perform their big song Sonic. With only so much room for time, they were only able to perform the one song, but it was a banger by all accounts and was more than enough to get the crowd moving for their set.

Scotty came back out to deliver the final sermon as he performed his unreleased song with a sample of Nirvana’s hook from Smells Like Teen Spirit as he did so he invited all the artists to join him on stage as they moshed around to close out Midnight Club III.